Why aren't Firewall settings persistent in Ventura?

I'm attempting to do 'stealth' mode firewal. I've noticed that enabling it is possible, but the setting isn't persistent. It turns itself off.

I've removed the config file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist, and rebooted to no avail.

Anyone else have firewall setting issues?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.2

Posted on Feb 2, 2023 5:23 PM

Similar questions

Firewall settings not sticking - reverting without user involvement Like other people, I'm being pestered at every login by the "Do you want the application "mediasharingd" to accept incoming network connections?". I spent 45 minutes chatting with Apple Support who took me through changing the Firewall settings to block incoming connections to the mediasharingd process. Now I find that those changes to the Firewall settings do not stick. After a restart, the settings have reverted to they were before. In particular, the setting for mediasharingd is changed back to "Allow incoming connections". Worse, I decided to block ALL incoming connections. That seemed to work. After a restart a couple of days ago, it was still set to block. BUT, I could see that in the greyed out list of processes mediasharingd was again set to "Allow". Today after startup, I again got the pesky mediasharingd popup. I checked the Firewall settings and found "Block all incoming connections" was OFF. I have thought that changes to Firewall settings required admin credentials. So, how can my settings change without any admin (or other) involvement ? I have used Feedback Assistant to send the details to Apple. But, I assume there will be no response. Does anyone understand what's going on ?
1159 2
Control Center.app Turning Firewall Off Why is the Control Center.app turning my firewall off? I have a new 2016" MacBook Pro. I just re-imaged it with a fresh Ventura OS because I thought malicious software was turning my (built-in) firewall off. Every time I restart or after 5-10 minutes, my firewall is turned off. I've tried blocking control center, enabling stealth mode, and blocking all incoming connections. Control Center is still changing my firewall to off.
3290 3
Firewall settings resetting themselves by a previously uninstalled app I installed an Video Player/DLNA App which made an allow incoming rule entry in the Firewall settings but I uninstalled the App and even deleted it's leftover binaries by using Parallels Toolbox but it keeps showing up there in Firewall and even after repeatedly deleting its entry it shows up there again and also my stealth mode setting keeps turning off itself. I don't understand why my firewall settings keeps reverting themselves.
2086 10

2 replies

PMartens Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 3, 2023 9:36 AM in response to Randall_2023

Hi Randal...

I was able to access the above-hidden file. However, I couldn't delete it.

I used the following terminal command instead:

sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw \
  --setblockall off \
  --setallowsigned on \
  --setallowsignedapp on \
  --setloggingmode on \
  --setstealthmode on \
  --setglobalstate on

So far that's solved my problem? For now...

Feb 2, 2023 7:17 PM in response to PMartens

Actually, I believe the correct plist file is here:

/usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/com.apple.alf.plist

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Why aren't Firewall settings persistent in Ventura?